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Honest Illusions

It has been a while since I posted on here and the stretches of time between articles seem to get longer and longer. Finding the time to read has been a challenge and finding the time to blog is even harder. I am hoping that I can get back into a reading and blogging routine because I still love to do both! This book and I had a rough start but we made it through the rough patch just fine!

A little sleight of hand never hurt anyone right? Well, not physically anyway. Roxy Nouvelle has acquired many things in her lifetime including her taste for expensive jewels and a talent for magic. Luke Callahan, a mastered escape artist, teams up with Roxy and her family to pull off the biggest jewel heist they have ever planned to take revenge on a childhood enemy. When the plan goes wrong, Luke and Roxy are forced to look at what is most important: their family or the money.

I am going back to read the older Nora Roberts books because I feel like they are more unique and have more effort put into them. Her newer ones just seem like a copy and paste projects. I still plan on reading her new books though, she is still my favorite author. I enjoyed this book the most because of its story line. It wasn’t what I thought it was going to be so it was fun to read through the twists and turns.

The beginning was a little boring, though. The book starts off when Roxy and Luke were little and Luke was “adopted” by Roxy’s dad. This is where he starts to learn about their magic show and other things. I don’t know why but all I could think about was getting past this part of the story because it wasn’t appealing or gripping to me. I put the book down for a few weeks (maybe a little more) and then picked it up to power through.

When a book starts off like that, it sets a certain tone with me and I lose interest very easily so it was hard to pick it back up and get going. Once I read through their childhood, things got a lot better and much more interesting. I liked the adult Luke and Roxy better; their story lines developed much more and they became their own characters. When they were children, they were influenced by Roxy’s father and you watched them mimic him. As adults they made their own decisions. There was much more action and other things that you would expect out of a Nora Roberts books.

My favorite part about this book was the “magic” or illusions. The scenes were written so well that it was easy to see what happening but the characters didn’t let you see to far into the future. They kept you present, right in front of them. There were somethings that were predictable and some things were not. The endings that Nora Roberts relies on the most always predictable on some level; her protagonists always come out on top. It stands true in this book but there was a section where I questioned how the charters were going to pull off their victory. I liked that, it kept me interested.

The Good:The mix of characters
The character story lines and how each one developed
The creative writing/the illusions
Unique in its own Nora Roberts way

The Not Good:Slow, uninteresting beginning

Overall: I would recommend this novel to any Nora Roberts fan that has not read it yet. It is a fun read that is full of action, humor and love.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Up Next: To be determined! I say this because I am currently reading IT by Stephen King and am not sure how long it will take. I may read another book with it. Have you seen the size of that book?? It’s monstrous. So, my next review will have to be a surprise 🙂